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What are Hoodia Gordonii Side Effects |
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Thursday, 05 July 2007 |
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Hoodia gordonii is a cactus like plant that grows in the deserts of South Africa. Hoodia gordonii has been found to have the ability to suppress appetite. However, not much information is truly known about hoodia gordonii and its possible side effects. Many companies market hoodia gordonii as a diet supplement without side effects. However, there is no hard evidence for or against these statements. The claim that there are no hoodia gordonii side effects is based largely off of the idea that the Kalahari used hoodia gordonii for thousands of years without harm.
There are a lot of logical reasons that this is an illogical assumption. The biggest reason that this is a false assumption about hoodia gordonii side effects is that the Kalahari did not live the same way that we do today. They did not have the same toxin exposure from industrialism. They also did not take medications for various ailments the way that we do today.It is fairly certain that one of the hoodia gordonii side effects is liver failure or loss of liver function. The limited studies that have been performed on human testing has shown that a loss of liver function is inevitable with long term use of hoodia gordonii. This is caused not by the appetite suppressant component of the herbal supplement, but by other components of the cactus that cannot be easily removed during processing for weight loss pills. People with diabetes are being discouraged from using herbal weight loss supplements using hoodia gordonii due to a theory as to how the cactus works. There are actually no scientific proofs as to how the plant halts hunger in its tracks. One theory, however, is that hoodia gordonii makes the brain think that it has enough blood sugar. If true this could cause serious hoodia gordonii side effects for people with diabetes or other blood sugar problems. Other hoodia gordonii side effects may come to light with further testing. There is little to no information about how hoodia gordonii may interact with other drugs or health conditions. There is also little information about what hoodia gordonii side effects may exist in humans because the majority of testing has been on animals. |
